The suggestion of the non-depictable

With these words the French philosopher Francois Lyotard describes the motivating force in art which, after loss of belief in the force of imitation, has led from description to circumscription, to deviation, and to a transition to the technique of found footage and image-recycling in contemporary art. And what he means is essentially what Viktor Sklovsky anticipated with his concept of alienation. Video can be seen as a metaphor for a world which is in the process of disappearing, as the recording instrument of a world which, in the next moment, will cease to exist as we see and know it. It acts as the imitative image of the place of the present, which, because of the increasing speed of the moment, is more and more difficult to distinguish from the past and the future. Video acts as an intervention, a moment for pausing and distancing.

OSTRANENIE '93 is the first video festival in Europe to emphasise the European video productions that are confronting the complex aritistic, cultural, and political realities of the so-called post-socialist countries of Eastern and Eastern Central Europe.

For us (the organisers, Stephen Kovats and myself), it is important to present the current situation of video art in Eastern Euorope, Eastern Central Europe, the Balkan countries, and Russia, above all because an overview of this kind has never been compiled. We hope that this festival will initiate communication between artists from the aforementioned regions as well as with those in the West - an improved exchange of artistic currents and concepts.

The concept of "ostranenie", a Russian literary term meaning estrangement, was coined by literary theorist and father of Russian Formalism Viktor Sklovskij, in his essay "Art as Process" (1916); the concept is as important today as it ever was. Sklovskij writes:

"...And precisely in order to restore the sensation of life, to make things feelable, to make stone stony, that which is called art exists. The aim of art is to convey a sense of the object, to make us see it, not re-cognize it; the process of art is the process of the "estrangement" (ostranenie) of things and the process of more difficult form, increasing the difficulty and length of perception for in art the process of perception is an end in itself and must be lengthened; art is a means of experiencing the making of something; what is made, on the other hand, is of no importance to art...."

We chose this title for the video festival because we think that in today's media-and-information society, "seeing" is more important than "recognising" the already known. "Recognising is propagated in particular by television: "recognising" by glancing results in superficial and vague "(imitative) images of reality" in one's mind, images which no longer stand for something in themselves, but serve to simplify the rapid sorting of what is recognised into certain categories, thus blocking the prospect of a more profound concern for the subject-matter. This kind of "seeing", which Sklovskij opposes to simple "recognition", can be made possible by art using its own means, and this is especially true of the art that makes use of present-day communication methods and media.

"...The aim of the image is not to draw its meaning closer to our understanding but to establish a particular perception of the object, so that it is 'seen' and not 'recognised'..."

Dissatisfaction with media images, the unchanging "takes" which the mass media endlessly reproduce, with their constantly recurring stereotypes which make what is close seem so far away, drove me to travel to various places in the world beind the television images - to Warsaw, the three independent Baltic states, Petersburg, and Moscow. There I found (somewhat to my surprise, I must admit) a very lively video scene. This was not so surprising for Poland, but certainly was for the Baltic states and Russia! What I also found, however, in numerous meetings with video artists and organisers (and here again I must make an exception of Poland) was a "fear of re-inventing the wheel" - caused by the still severely felt lack of literature and information on the development of both video art and recent philosophny in the Western part of Europe. The works that were submitted to OSTRANENIE '93 show how unfounded that fear is. If they re-invent the wheel, they invent a different one. The submitted videos suggest "discoveries of slowness", a pause in the face of "the disappearance of the world as we see it and know it, rather than a mere fascination with technology.

We have not designed OSTRANENIE '93 in the customary manner of a competition. Instead of making awards in the conventional sense of the term, we are making it possible for five of the Eastern or Eastern Central European artists selected by the jury to participate in the festival by being present in person and by presenting more of their work. Response to the festival was enormous (more than 200 video works and 40 video installations and performances) and should be reason to to think more about this festival. Shattered myths? New realities? Even an attempt to define "myth" and "reality" leads to controversy. OSTRANENIE '93 is the first video festival whose main emphasis is on the presentation of recent Eastern European video productions. Its significance might well be the aforementioned "discovery of slowness" in another, an Eastern European video, the discovery of significantly different and new methods of approaching the medium and the subjects it conveys.

I hope that this catalogue will reach artists and other interested people who cannot take part in the festival in person - and encourage them to contact me - so that in the future this overview of the history and present trends in Eastern European video art can be supplemented.

At this point I would like to thank the Bauhaus Dessau, the Ministry of Culture in Saxony-Anhalt, the German External Affairs in Bonn, the Foundation Kulturfonds, Dessau Brewery, K.I.E.Z. e.V., VALKE GmbH, AUPROVIS GmbH, and PRO VIDEO GmbH for financial and organisational support of the festival. Thanks are also due to the members of the commission for pre-selection (Axel Boesten, Kai Hesse, Werner Mayer, Werner M”ller, Raik Musiolik, Elisabeth Tharandt) for viewing videos at length for several days, and to the members of the jury (Marina Grzinic, Michael Haller, Ryszard Kluszcynski, Keiko Se, Stefan Tsvetkov) for their committed and constructive work, as well as all the writers who have either written texts or given permission for texts to be re-printed (especially Dr. Rossen Milev and Dr. Alex Erjavic), thereby permitting the catalogue to become an initial compendium of the history and present situation of video art in Eastern Europe, and, further, Suzanne Bellinghausen, Oliver Blomeier, John Fass, Andrea Gorgs, Anke Junghanns, Tama Kuhn, and Elizabeth McNeil for their assistance with organisation or editing, and many other people who have supported me during almost a year of planning for the festival.

I hope that this video festival will initiate further work on the subjects discussed, and I wish an interesting experience to all participants, artists, and guests during these "four days in November".

Inke Arns

Conception, Coordination of OSTRANENIE '93

at Bauhaus Dessau

in cooperation with Stephen Kovats, festival director